DISPATCHES FROM THE RUINS : DOCUMENTS & ANALYSES FROM UNIVERSITY STRUGGLES , EXPERIMENTS IN SELF -EDUCATION DISPATCHES FROM THE RUINS : DOCUMENTS & ANALYSES FROM UNIVERSITY STRUGGLES , EXPERIMENTS IN SELF -EDUCATION Dispatches from the Ruins was compiled in May 2011 by 1,000 Little Hammers || anti-copyright © 1000littlehammers.wordpress.com part I. Finding ourselves, Finding each other 1 Communiqué no.2 | To Our Friends The Imaginary Committee 1 Some passing thoughts on the Berkeley and Santa Cruz occupations, from someone who was there briefly Anonymous 3 Preoccupied: The Logic of Occupation Inoperative Committee 7 Communiqué from an Absent Future: On the Terminus of Student Life Research and Destroy 11 Communiqué from an Absent Future — Further Discussion Brian Holmes, Research and Destroy, & Dead Labor 18 Invent the Future, Reverse the Present Unicommon 20 From Tute Bianche to the Book Bloc Francesco Raparelli part II. Further Analysis 25 The Corporate university and the Financial Crisis: What is Going on? Christopher newfield and the Edu-factory Collective 26 notes on the Edu-factory and Cognitive Capitalism George Caffentzis and Silvia Federici 29 The Pedagogy of Debt Jeffrey Williams 32 The Student Loan Debt Abolition Movement in the U.S. George Caffentzis 36 Eight Theses on University: Hierarchization and Institutions of the Common Alberto De Nicola and Gigi Roggero i part III. Strategies, Tactics and notes Toward an Overflow 41 The University and the Undercommons Stefano Harney and Fred Moten 43 Instituent Practices: Fleeting, Instituting, Transforming Gerald Raunig 46 Extradisciplinary Investigations: Towards a New Critique of Institutions Brian Holmes 50 Articulating the Cracks in the Worlds of Power 16 Beaver Group talking with Brian Holmes 56 Be Network, My Friend Joan Miguel Gual and Francesco Salvini (Univeridad Nomada) 58 All Power to Self-Education! Edu-Factory Collective [Appendix] Notes Toward Lessons Learned 67 Movement, Learning: a few Reflections on the Exciting UK Winter 2010 Manuela zechner 70 No Conclusions When Another World is Unpopular Anonymous 71 Lesson of Insurrection: A Call to Revolt on a European Scale Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi 75 Additional Resources ii graphic from Those Who Use It iii citations I. Finding ourselves, Finding Each other Imaginary Committee, “Communiqué no.2 | To Our Friends,” available at: http://theimaginarycommittee.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/to-our-friends/ Anonymous, “Some passing thoughts on the Berkeley and Santa Cruz occupations, from someone who was there briefly,” available at: http://researchanddestroy.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/some-passing-thoughts-on-the-berkely-and-santa-cruz-occupations-from-someone-who-was-there-briefly/ Inoperative Committee, Preoccupied: The Logic of Occupation, available at: http://zinelibrary.info/preoccupied-logic-occupation Research and Destroy, Communiqué from an Absent Future: On the Terminus of Student Life, available at: http://researchanddestroy.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/communiquefromanabsentfuture/ Brian Holmes, Research and Destroy, and Dead Labor, “Communiqué from an Absent Future—Further discussion,” available at: http://www.revolutionbythebook.akpress.org/communique-from-an-absent-future-%E2%80%94-further-discussion-round-one/ Unicommon, “Invent the Future, Reverse the Present,” available at: http://www.unicommon.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2692:un icommon-the-revolt-of-living-knowledge-invent-the-future-reverse-the-present&catid=140:materials&Itemid=337 Francesco Raparelli, “From Tute Bianche to the Book Bloc,” available at: http://th-rough.eu/side-projects/tute-bianche-book-bloc-english-transcript II. Analysis Christopher Newfield and Edu-factory Collective, “The Corporate University and the Financial Crisis: What is Going On?,” published in Toward a Global Autonomous University. Available for download at: http://www.edu-factory.org/wp/book/ Jeffrey Williams, “The Pedagogy of Debt,” published in Toward a Global Autonomous University. Available for download at: http://www.edu-factory.org/wp/book/ George Caffentzis, ““The Student Loan Debt Abolition Movement in the U.S.,” available at: http://www.edu-factory.org/wp/round-of-discus- sion-on-debt-george-caffentzis-the-student-loan-debt-abolition-movement-in-the-u-s/ George Caffentzis and Silvia Federici, “notes on Edu-factory and Cognitive Capitalism,” published in Toward a Global Autonomous University. Available for download at: http://www.edu-factory.org/wp/book/ Alberto De Nicola and Gigi Roggero, “Eight Theses on University, Hierarchization and Institutions of the Common,” http://listcultures.org/pipermail/edufactory_listcultures.org/2008-January/000097.html III. Strategies, Tactics and notes Toward an Overflow Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, “The University and the Undercommons,”published in Toward a Global Autonomous University. Available for download at: http://www.edu-factory.org/wp/book/ Gerald Raunig, “Instituent Practices: Fleeting, Instituting, Transforming,” available at: http://eipcp.net/transversal/0106/raunig/en Brian Holmes, “Extradisciplinary Investigations. Towards a New Critique of Institutions,” available at: http://eipcp.net/transversal/0106/holmes/en Brian Holmes, “Articulating the Cracks in World Power: Interview with 16 Beaver,” published in Escape the Overcode: Activist Art in the Control Society. Book available at: http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/book-materials/ Joan Miguel Gual and Francesco Salvini of Universidad Nómada, “Be Network, My Friend,” available at: http://radical.temp.si/2010/05/be-network-my-friend-by-joan-miquel-gual-and-francesco-salvini-members-of-universidad-nomada/ Edu-factory Collective, “All Power to Self-Education!,” published in Toward a Global Autonomous University. Available for download at: http://www.edu-factory.org/wp/book/ [Appendix] Notes Toward Lessons Learned Manuela Zechner, “Movement, Learning: A few Reflections on the Exciting UK Winter 2010,” available at: http://www.edu-factory.org/wp/movement-learning-a-few-reflections-on-the-exciting-uk-winter-2010/ Anonymous, “No Conclusions When Another World is Unpopular,” published in After the Fall: Communiqués from Occupied California. Available for download at: http://afterthefallcommuniques.info/ Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi, “Lesson of Insurrection: A Call to Revolt on a European Scale,” available at: http://occupyeverything.com/reports/1845/ iv We’ve got the vision We’ve got each other Now let’s have some fucking fun. —The Imaginary Committee v part I. Finding ourselves, Finding each other 1 Communiqué no.2 | To Our Friends The Imaginary Committee 1 Some passing thoughts on the Berkeley and Santa Cruz occupations, from someone who was there briefly Anonymous 3 Preoccupied: The Logic of Occupation Inoperative Committee 7 Communiqué from an Absent Future: On the Terminus of Student Life Research and Destroy 11 Communiqué from an Absent Future — Further Discussion Brian Holmes, Research and Destroy, & Dead Labor 18 Invent the Future, Reverse the Present Unicommon 20 From Tute Bianche to the Book Bloc Francesco Raparelli vi Communiqué no. 2 || Some passing thoughts on To Our Friends the Berkeley and Santa Cruz the Imaginary Committee occupations, from someone who was there briefly To our friends everywhere: anonymous Yeah it’s overwhelming, but what else can we do - Either: It is no great secret that the terminal crisis of capitalism is before our Search idiotically for nonexistent jobs in offices eyes: the welfare state, the bitter product of two world wars, the child and wake up for the morning news? of Hitler and Noske, wherein a certain social safety net was provided Keeping ourselves alive just to continue live another miserable day? for a measure of social peace, is in the process of being forcibly liq- uidated by the exigencies of an incresingly bankrupt social system. Or: This much is evident to all those who have a basic thinking capacity. Begin and act from our own conditions. And thus, those who are protesting for a defense of this transient November 2009, this is what is happening: we have found each historical form will find nothing here of value, nor even anything other, and we are learning to act, here addressed to them. Such people can protest all day for a return finally. to the glory days they imagine, but since these halcyon times never existed anyways, one can see they will certainly have no success now. This means developing close bonds, Rather we address ourselves to those who believe in any fashion in learning what it truly is to say ‘comrade’; the “terminus of student life”; but not of course to open something someone who shares your conditions, shares your enemies, so worthless as a literary polemic or discussion, nor to presume to and who you trust with your life. Someone who knows that it is always necessary to take sides. give prescriptions or orders- all we do here is attempt a “generaliza- We have learned what it means to say we. tion of insinuation”. For, to be right means nothing, what is important is acting in consequence. Now more than ever is the time to experiment, to try and try again. To learn how to make better barricades, to discover our courage, to The movement has already become acquainted with its enemies: the fight without end. unionist, student politician type being only the most insidious and Of course we’ll make mistakes – we are only just beginning to wake veiled. In this we have had to re-learn one of the primary lessons of up. the Movement of 77: the actual complicity of all unions and par- ties, however radical sounding, with the cops. At Berkeley, this spe- We’ve got the vision cial type of policing seems far more prevalent than at Santa Cruz, We’ve got each other along with the historical baggage of Savio and the Black Panthers Now let’s have some fucking fun. weighing like a nightmare on this current generation, not to mention the tired front-group appeals to some sort of radicality concerning We are with those barricaded in buildings, throwing rocks in the Obama, which is about as sad and deluded as one could get . Where- streets, and drinking their Chancellor’s champagne. as at SC, these safety valves were less firmly in place, and the flimsy From now on, this is all solidarity means.